Localvore: Applesauce for Hanukkah

Dec. 9, 2012

Roasted Vermont apples and cranberries make a vibrant pink applesauce to be served with latkes during the eight-day celebration of Hanukkah, which started Saturday night. / MELISSA PASANEN / For the Free Press

Written by

Free Press correspondent

This year, we have been obliged to add a ninth night to Hanukkah to fit our annual party into everyone’s crazy-busy holiday schedule.

The eight-night-long festival of Hanukkah involves progressively lighting a parade of candles along the menorah until a fully lit candelabra marks the final night. We’re not quite sure what we’ll do for candles for a ninth night, but with every family bringing at least one menorah, there will be a lot of light.

The lights symbolize the miracle of a small jar of sacred oil found in the Jewish temple in Jerusalem after it was desecrated more than 20 centuries ago. The oil was needed to re-sanctify the temple but, as the story goes, the quantity that should have lasted only one day instead miraculously burned for eight until more oil could be found.

To honor the oil, Jews traditionally celebrate the holiday with foods fried in oil. For those of Ashkenazi (German or Eastern European) heritage like myself, that means latkes, or potato pancakes; for Sephardic Jews with Spanish, Portuguese and Middle Eastern roots, it more commonly entails making, sufganiyot, or doughnuts.

Along with assorted dreidels and well-wrapped menorahs, my Hanukkah storage box includes invite lists and notes on how many latkes I’ve made each year going back to 2000. I honestly can’t remember if that was the inaugural party, but this year marks at least its twelfth anniversary.

Several years ago, the event yielded a slightly smaller crowd than normal so I felt sure I’d have enough latkes if I made a few less than the previous year, but then we ran out. I was befuddled until I looked around the room and saw a crowd of hungry teenagers where once there were children.

Nowadays I buy about 25 pounds of Vermont potatoes (plus local eggs and onions) to grate and then fry into between 180 and 200 latkes. Every year the food magazines try to convince me to add parsnips or sweet potato or something else to my latkes, but I am a traditionalist (at least where latkes are concerned) and stick to the basics with guidance from the 1997 winter issue of Cook’s Illustrated magazine. I am very thankful for the invention of the food processor, however; if I used the hand grater inherited from my grandmother I’d be at it for days.

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With latkes, of course, there must be applesauce. We have one friend who always brings a bowl, but I have learned to keep extra on hand. A note in my file dated 2006 reads simply and bleakly: “Not enough applesauce.” Unlike the Hanukkah oil, the applesauce did not miraculously replenish itself.

Oven-Roasted Cranberry-

Applesauce

Oven-Roasted Cranberry-
Applesauce

Loosely adapted from “Cooking with Shelburne Farms: Food and Stories from Vermont” by Melissa Pasanen with Rick Gencarelli (Viking, 2007)

Makes about 8 cups applesauce; can be doubled and roasted in two pans

I love this particular recipe because I believe that roasting almost anything is a good idea as it intensifies flavors, adds a touch of caramelization and does not require me to hover over the stove. I happened to have extra Vermont Cranberry Company cranberries on hand from Thanksgiving this year and found they added a wonderful zip and hue to the applesauce. They will be available fresh at local stores through the end of year and frozen in some outlets through the winter. A food mill takes care of both the cranberry and apple skins.

DIRECTIONS

2. Roast until apples are very soft, stirring a couple times, about 30–45 minutes, depending on apple variety. (Careful when you open the oven to check them, you will be blasted by hot apple steam. I always think it would make a great spa treatment.)

3. Run roasted fruit and any accumulated liquid through a food mill for a smooth sauce or, if you don’t have a food mill (see note below), push it through a sieve.

4. Applesauce will keep up to 2 weeks in the refrigerator or can be frozen for several months.

Testing note: I strongly recommend buying a food mill; the sturdy plastic versions are not too pricey and will earn back their cost in no time just between making applesauce and fluffy mashed potatoes. Another possibility, if you don’t have a food mill, is to peel the apples and then use a food processor to puree the roasted fruit. However, I have not tried this myself and am not sure how the cranberry skins will behave.